Depth leads Patriots to tournament title

Wednesday

Apr 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMApr 29, 2009 at 7:48 PM

It may have appeared as if Olentangy Liberty High School boys tennis coach Steve Sisko didn't care about winning the Delaware County tournament last Saturday at Olentangy Orange after he sent three of his top players to the Worthington Cup at Worthington Kilbourne the same day.

It may have appeared as if Olentangy Liberty High School boys tennis coach Steve Sisko didn't care about winning the Delaware County tournament last Saturday at Olentangy Orange after he sent three of his top players to the Worthington Cup at Worthington Kilbourne the same day.

Despite missing top singles players Arren Carter and Alex Solove and No. 1 doubles player Scott Miller, the Patriots still scored 26 points to win the nine-team tournament ahead of runner-up Olentangy (15). Alexander Hathaway (second singles) and Vick Chhabria (third singles) went 3-0 to win titles, and Tyler Gibbons and John McMahon went 4-0 to win at first doubles.

A.J. Hansen and Jacob Kallenbach went 2-1 to finish second at second doubles and Mitchell Lothes went 2-1 to finish fifth at first singles.

"We sent some of our best players to Worthington to get better competition, but I thought we could win this tournament with the lineup we sent here because we've got great depth," Sisko said. "We've obviously got some very good players at singles, but this goes to show our balance. We have some kids who play junior varsity (Chhabria and Hansen) who are capable of beating other teams' better players. That's a big part of why we've done so well."

After 3-2 losses to Shaker Heights on April 18 and Upper Arlington on April 22, the Patriots are looking forward to playing more tough competition today at Kilbourne.

The Wolves, who have won seven consecutive OCC titles, have a formidable group of singles players in Kevin Metka (first), Jonny Price (second) and Chris Yoon (third), all of whom won OCC-Cardinal Division titles last year.

Price and graduate Nick Kowalczyk lost to Boardman's Robert Salcedo and Scott Warden in the first round of the Division I state tournament after Price had an allergic reaction to medication he was taking.

Before last Monday, Carter was 10-3 at first singles, Solove was 7-1 at second singles, Hathaway was 8-0 at second and third singles, Gibbons was 12-1 at first and second doubles, McMahon was 9-0 at first and second doubles, Miller was 8-2 at first doubles and Kallenbach was 8-3 at first and second doubles.

Carter lost to Metka 10-6 last Saturday on the way to going 2-1 to place fifth. Miller and Solove lost to Price and Yoon 10-5 on the way to going 1-2 to place sixth.

"We have the talent to beat Worthington Kilbourne if we play them straight up," Miller said. "Arren has beaten Metka in the past and he definitely wants to play him again. This should be a close match." •Olentangy finished second in the Delaware County tournament even though it was missing three starters.

Alex Browning and Jordan Springer couldn't compete because they were participating in another school activity and Kaif Sajid was sidelined with a sprained ankle.

Drew Oppenlander went 3-0 to win at first singles, Chris Miller went 2-1 to place third at third singles and senior Bharat Gogineni and junior Simon Hoellerbauer went 2-1 to place third at second doubles.

"Drew is a pretty strong player and we expected him to finish No. 1 or 2 here, but I think our team did pretty well considering the circumstances," Gogineni said. "Chris normally plays doubles, so he did real well, too. It was surprising that Simon and I did this well because neither of us has played much varsity tennis in the past and the only time we've played doubles together was in practice."

•Orange coach Mark Latham is looking forward to a non-league match Tuesday at home against Delaware, which beat the Pioneers 3-2 last Friday.

Freshman Doug Ganim rallied to beat Doug Nguyen 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 at second singles, and the second-doubles team of Sam Meyung and Matt Pennington defeated Pittman Kuchers and Matt Schmitthenner 6-2, 6-1, but the Pioneers still lost 3-2 for the third time in eight matches.

"I'm hoping we're going to show improvement against Delaware because the first match was as close as you can get in high school tennis," Latham said. "We're real proud of the way Doug continues to fight back in his matches, no matter what the score is. We're a very young team and it's a lot of pressure for a 13- or 14-year-old kid to have to win a match for his team when the score is tied at 2. But we're learning and getting better."

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